Fancy eating at the best restaurant in the world next year? Then join the thousands of foodies who will be busy e-mailing obsequious reservation requests to El Bulli in Spain between Tuesday and Thursday next week, praying to the gastro-gods for success.

Such is the demand to taste chef Ferran Adrià's extraordinary, theatrical and often downright bonkers food at his restaurant on the northern Costa Brava that getting a table is like winning the lottery. Adrià is making it even more difficult next year by opening only from June to December, from Wednesday to Saturday, and, with a few exceptions, only for dinner.

The rejects will hear back in about two weeks; the lucky few, who can look forward to spending more than £200 each on dishes such as suckling pig tail and gnocchi of polenta with coffee and saffron yuba, will be told in November.

But if you don't get a table, why not book at one of the nearby restaurants where Adrià and his team like to eat when off duty? They gave Times Travel a few recommendations.

Spain's perfect paella

It is Valencia’s gift to Spain, but tourists rarely get the real thing. Paul Richardson finds the genuine article in Buñol

• The best tapas in Spain

• El Bulli for us

• Taking a pig to slaughter in Spain

10 things I love about Spanish food

The author of a new book on Spanish food reveals exclusively his favourite tastes of Iberia

• Spain's perfect paella

The best tapas in Barcelona

As a way of exploring the Catalan capital, 63 courses in 24 hours isn’t bad, says our newly obese correspondent

• The best tapas in Spain

Related Internet Links

• More articles on Spain

Related Links

• New York's hottest restaurant

After cooking gorgonzola moshi and floral candyfloss all day, the Bulli brigade like prime ingredients, simply cooked, and they usually head to the nearby resort of Roses. At first glance, Roses doesn't appear to do gourmet. Most of its restaurants along the main tourist drag advertise their menus in six languages, waiters have perfected their “come hither” look from doorways, and a bucket of sangria is the drink of choice.

The Bulli hang-outs are hidden away. Up the hill away from the seafront is Cal Campaner, a tiny restaurant with an infuriatingly discreet sign and decorated with football team posters, memorabilia and photos. Once you agree that you're happy to eat “just fish”, you'll be allowed in to join locals and the owner's young family - this is as informal as it gets. Try the clams, perfectly grilled tuna and some hardcore octopus oozing pungent ink.

For dinner, Rafa's is tucked away in an alley, past endless handbag stalls and a shop selling miniatures of Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill. It is a place of pilgrimage for foodies who know that Ferran Adrià once told the New York chef Anthony Bourdain that this was his favourite place to eat. It has only a handful of tables.

Rafa, the owner, is a chain-smoking Catalan version of Danny DeVito. The only fish on offer here has been chosen by Rafa at the market - if the daily catch isn't good enough, the restaurant doesn't open. There is no menu: everything is simply grilled with olive oil and sea salt.

Adrià's passion are the local anchovies - this stretch of the Costa Brava is known as the anchovy coast - plonked on a plate with toasted bread, two garlic cloves and a tomato. Rafa serves excellent baby squid, too - crispy, but creamy and moreish.

When he has had enough fish Adrià goes to Las Golondrinas, opposite Rafa's, for a meat fix. The restaurant changed hands this year and is now an Argentine steakhouse. It's smarter than Cal Campaner and Rafa's, but still family run and with the same emphasis on ingredients.

Sitting with a prime fillet and a glass of rioja, Roses feels like foodie heaven. If you are not lucky enough to get a table at El Bulli, you can still eat where the best chef in the world eats. That's worth a journey in itself.

NEED TO KNOW

El Bulli, Cala Montjoi (00 34 972 150 457, www.elbulli.com): the restaurant is open next year from June 16 to December 20. Book by e-mail (bulli@elbulli.com) from October 14-16. Submit four dates for your reservation. There are cancellations so it is worth ringing to check once the season starts.

Rafa's, Sant Sebastià 56 (00 34 972 254 003)

Las Golondrinas, Sant Sebastià 63

Cal Campaner, Mossen Carles Feliu 23 (00 34 972 25 69 54)

Read A Day at El Bulli, by Ferran Adrià, Juli Soler and Albert Adrià, is published this month by Phaidon (£29.95)

Times recommends

• Overlanding then and now
• Live Q&A: ski fitness and injury
• Get the right payment card and deny Ryanair its hefty fee